At the moment, Li Wei was only in his gnoll form, and his true body's scales had yet to grow in. If he were suddenly blasted away by a Steam Bomb like this, he probably wouldn't be seriously hurt, but getting peppered with metal shrapnel would still be pretty unpleasant.
The reason he hadn't immediately warned the engrossed Old Dwarf came down to this: deep down, Li Wei had probably wanted to test him a little.
After all, there was a clear reason for Zelandia's existence, but Li Wei couldn't believe that if these Duergar weren't capable of putting up a decent fight, those greedy long-eared folk in Gershon City would leave such a juicy prize alone. Wasn't it far better to enjoy the underground mineral wealth all to themselves?
Sure enough, in the instant before the explosion, Old Dwarf Tiger's expression shifted from fervor to shock, astonishment, dawning realization, confusion, anger, and finally embarrassment. It was quite a sight. Then he displayed agility completely at odds with his build and turned to run.
His movements were ultimately half a beat slower than everyone else's, but just as the scorching steam carried broken metal parts flying in every direction, a ripple-like wave suddenly appeared around his body.
The white steam and metal fragments abruptly slowed before the wave, some even stopping in midair just outside it.
It looked just like the scene in The Matrix where the protagonist used an invisible force field to stop bullets. Damn, that was cool.
"Psionics! That old dwarf actually awakened psionic powers? Was he really one of the Duergar who escaped from those Mind Flayers at Iron Melting Fortress?"
Li Wei narrowed his eyes slightly, as if reassessing his new partner.
"Psionics! Real psionics! A Duergar who's awakened psionic powers! I, Garvin, have finally found one!!"
Meanwhile, Garvin's shock and inner turmoil at the sight of this were far greater than Li Wei's.
Why had he gone off to the Underdark like a madman, abandoning his wife and children? Wasn't it because his mentor had said he had a rare talent for psionics, and he wanted to search the Underdark for Duergar who had awakened their powers so he could learn from them?
And what had happened? Not only had he failed to find his target, he'd thrown away ten years of his youth—maybe even his whole life. He was a bona fide illusionist, yet he'd spent a decade working as a miner under an assumed name!
But after ten years of despair, he'd suddenly discovered that the object of his long-held wish, the person he'd spent ten years searching for, was none other than his former boss—the very person he'd worked with for ten years.
The twists and turns of that emotional journey were beyond ordinary people's imagining.
But Old Tiger the Duergar only looked cool in the eyes of the onlookers for less than three milliseconds.
The next moment, the piston rod from the ruptured cylinder broke straight through his psionic shield, which had been stretched to its limit, and, with a wet squelch, jabbed into the old dwarf's withered backside.
"Ah~" The old dwarf let out a cry of indeterminate meaning and collapsed on the spot.
The scene was so brutal that everyone who witnessed this iconic moment hurriedly looked away.
Quick-thinking Garvin, the Livestock Officer, was the first to rush over and fuss over him. "Master Tiger! Don't move! I'll tend to your injuries right away."
Without a word, the fool made as if to pull out the still-scorching piston rod. The old dwarf shuddered and hurriedly stopped him. "Stop! Don't! I can handle it myself."
Having narrowly escaped a second grievous injury to both body and mind, the old dwarf immediately changed the subject to distract Garvin. "I need to see Master Hogg. I have something urgent to report to him."
"What could be more important than your injuries? Master Tiger, I think you should go back and rest for now. With your help, we've proved that the Steam Engine is completely workable. In a few days, we can work with the dwarf craftsmen to build another batch of prototypes for expanding the mines." Li Wei had walked over and offered his insincere consolation.
Tiger rolled his eyes. In his heart, he'd already cursed Li Wei to the depths of hell for deliberately failing to warn him. So he got straight to the point. "The Magic Fluctuation caused by the Arcane Fireball you released when you blasted open the entrance to the West Mining Area today has drawn the attention of Gershon City. According to a message from our brothers in the Upper City, an investigation team may come soon to thoroughly investigate the source of that fluctuation."
He didn't offer Li Wei any advice or instructions. Instead, he simply laid out the information plainly, exactly as he'd received it. As for how to respond, he trusted that Li Wei, a gnoll whose heart was even blacker than his face, would make his own plans after hearing the news. There was no need for Tiger to waste his breath.
In fact, he strongly suspected that whether the gnoll was even really a gnoll was still up for debate.
After all, who had ever seen one gnoll call another gnoll "Master"? And who had ever seen a gnoll cast an Arcane Fireball, for crying out loud?
"When?" Li Wei nodded to show he understood and asked.
"How would I know? I don't have a brother who can worm his way into the Matriarch Council. But it shouldn't be that soon. You know how efficient the Drow council is. Every time, it comes with all kinds of maneuvering and conspiracies. Who knows which family's 'lucky one' will be sent this time? Ha!" The old dwarf laughed gleefully, only for his smile to seize up as if he'd pulled something in some unmentionable spot along his spine.
Li Wei laughed along. The old dwarf hadn't spelled it out, but Li Wei understood. Given the Drow's ways, once they learned that a substantial Arcane fluctuation had come from the Dark Magic Web region—and given that they couldn't spare High-Tier Professionals for long—the likely outcome was obvious.
But then he felt a headache coming on. It almost certainly meant that he wouldn't be able to put the "Steam Engine Mining Mule" into full production before the Drow Investigation Team arrived.
If a bunch of greedy creatures suddenly saw a huge leap in productivity, the outcome they faced would be entirely different.
At least for now, Li Wei wasn't ready for an all-out war with the Drow.
Zelandia's first trial run of the Steam Engine came to an end with that spectacular explosion. Livestock Officer Garvin had wanted to use the chance to see Old Tiger off and get closer to his former boss, but Huozi grabbed him by the collar and dragged him back to the Cavens Rat Farm to continue his breeding work.
But to Li Wei's surprise, the old dwarf with the injured backside came bounding back early the next morning, full of life. Aside from walking a little strangely, he showed almost no signs of having been blown up the day before. As soon as he arrived, he started clamoring for them to build a second Steam Engine.
This time, he hadn't come alone. Dozens of dwarves followed behind him, carrying all kinds of tools and tons of refined iron ingots.
There was no denying that the dwarves were far better at smelting and forging than Li Wei, an amateur. They didn't even need him to help. Bald Guy Fischer and Igg could handle the welding with their Arcane Flame Hands, joining the steel plates forged by the dwarves while continually refining this most primitive version of the Steam Engine based on their own studies.
As everyone worked away at their "garage build" of a mining mule cart, a fully armed group of Drow arrived in Zelandia.
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